Random stuff

OK, so there isn't much to say. I follow monkeys, I record monkeys, I look at data. But I do have a USB port today (the internet shop 'found' them), so I'll just stick up some photos. It'll be like you're right here with me.

My home:

While simple, it is very nice and we have rain tanks and a solar panel which gives enough power each day to enter data and run one light bulb for a few hours at night. Perfect.

My neighbor:
I think one of the forest rangers lives here, but all I ever see is his rather ill-tempered cow. We have agreed to ignore one another.


A baby blue monkey:
Mostly because, seriously, that's some cute business.

Some odd cricket-like critters:
Mostly just because, well, it's not a monkey.

Dangers of field work:

This is certainly the first (and most likely the last) any of you will see of me with facial hair. It is not a gift I have, and I do not pretend that it is anything less than disturbing. However, in the interest of full disclosure I felt compelled to include it here.

No Right Answer

Warning: this post will not be light, full of self-deprecating anecdotes or witty commentary on all things monkey. Mea culpa.

Where to begin ...
I think it begins with colonialism - a few hundred years of British rule in Kenya followed by a botched withdrawal and a subsequent 40 years of mismanagement. But that is too far back to go. Perhaps it is at the crossroads between foreign aid and entrenched government corruption. Maybe it is Bono's fault. I'm not sure, and I doubt even the political scientists or cultural anthropologists could make sense of it. But, here's the story and why it has put me in a mood (I'll try to be brief).

1. Someone came up with a foreign aid plan. Someone else agreed that this was a good plan and some money began trickling into Kenya (some say not enough, some say too much without enough oversight).
2. Someone else came up with the Kenyan Development Plan. This plan outlines the goals for bringing Kenya, still primarily rural and agricultural despite considerable cities, technology, and infrastructure, into the 21st century (or at least the latter half of the 20th).
3. ONE of these goals is power (electricity) to every home in Kenya. Now, as someone who certainly enjoys, nay, depends upon electricity back home, I can hardly fault this as a goal. However, I think some things like clean water and dependable roads are a much higher priority. But no one has consulted me.
4. Because the government here is subject to certain quirks, and agencies rarely suffer under the same degree of oversight we have grown to depend on back home, this goal has had some peculiar manifestations. Rather than push first for specific townships to be electrified in a logical order, each government agency (and there are zillions) has scrambled to demand that their obscure and remote outposts get powered. This goes nicely with the government's ownership of Kenya Power and Light, who gets all the contracts.
5. So, why do I care about all this? Well, the Kenya Forest Department is one such government agency and Kakamega Forest is one such obscure and remote outpost. The forester here was gleeful at the prospect of getting power to his office, his house, and one other building here at the forest station. He was also gleeful at the prospect of selling the cleared timber to a salivating timber company that is not allowed to get into some areas of national forest. However, he kept plans to himself and the last 10 days has been a savage horror of chainsaws. I hear pictures are worth a thousand words, and I certainly haven't the words for it so...

Before:

After:

This was "necessary" to bring power lines in from the main road, several kilometers out. Some of us read a lot about deforestation. We know it happens and that it is happening at an alarming rate. Some of us understand habitat fragmentation, such that even with a small habitat lost, if it bisects a system that system can be irrevocably altered (i.e. connectivity is lost, species cannot migrate, edge effects cause the forest to dwindle, etc.).

How different it is, however, when we watch it happen to something we have grown to know and care about. It occurs to me how little we notice things like this in the west. The houses we live in, the roads we drive on, the power line charging the computers you are currently sitting in front of, were all once some pristine piece of natural ecosystem. I doubt many of us would want to give up these things that have allowed us to have such advanced, safe, and productive lives. And I should not fault others for wanting a taste of it for themselves.

But when you watch 100 year old trees fall, when you hear the alarm calls of monkeys and birds who find their territories suddenly halved, it makes you think. I am thinking. I have no right answer.

How to do Primate Research

So, it occurs to me that many (most?) of you want to try your hand at researching primate vocalization. I don't blame you. I strongly encourage it, but thought I might offer some useful tips before you set out. Please follow these directions carefully and remember that I am a trained professional and that novices should approach this work with appropriate caution.

1. FIND A MONKEY
While this step may seem obvious, it is a very important one and it is worth taking some time to perfect. Monkeys tend to live in trees, and spend a frustratingly large portion of their time VERY HIGH in said trees. So you will have to look up. Walk through the forest, eyes trained at the canopy some 50 meters overhead, and look for minuscule rustling in the branches. IMPORTANT: At least every so often, try to remember when the last time you looked at the ground was. This may keep you from stepping in a hole or on a snake.
When you see such a rustling, train your binoculars (you brought binoculars, didn't you?) and determine the cause of the rustling. In most cases it is a bird. Sometimes it is a squirrel. But SOMETIMES, it is a monkey. If so, you should make sure.

2. HOW TO KNOW YOU'VE FOUND A MONKEY

Not a Monkey:



Monkey:

3. IS IT A BLUE MONKEY?
I am only researching blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and therefore have no patience for the other primates that often cause rustling. You should know your monkey!

Not a Blue Monkey:


Blue Monkey:


4. IDENTIFY YOUR INDIVIDUAL
I will not belabor the discussion mis-matched nipples and other tell-tale (tail?) signs of individuality from earlier posts. However, you must know who you are dealing with (even as they bounce around at 50 meters over your head). Once you've ID'd your monkey, the research begins.

5. RECORD YOUR MONKEY
This is trickier than it might sound. I have a fancy field recording gizmo, complete with lots of buttons and dials (that way you can tell that I am really working and not just following monkeys for fun). Get one of your own. If you cannot afford a fancy field recording gizmo, listen very carefully and try to repeat the calls you hear so that you can repeat them back to your friends and colleagues. Especially the really loud ones. They will be very impressed with you and your new found line of work. They will call you a genius and wonder how they ever doubted the importance of studying the evolutionary implications of primate vocalizations.


There is certainly much more to researching primates, but this should be enough to get you started. I realize that there may be noticeable lack of non-human primates where you live, and this might be frustrating. Don't give up! You just have to believe in the monkeys. They believe in you.